A gas turbine engine generally includes a fan and a core arranged in flow communication with one another. Additionally, the core of the gas turbine engine general includes, in serial flow order, a compressor section, a combustion section, a turbine section, and an exhaust section. In operation, air is provided from the fan to an inlet of the compressor section where one or more axial compressors progressively compress the air until it reaches the combustion section. Fuel is mixed with the compressed air and burned within the combustion section to provide combustion gases. The combustion gases are routed from the combustion section to the turbine section. The flow of combustion gasses through the turbine section drives the turbine section and is then routed through the exhaust section, e.g., to atmosphere. Additionally, the core generally includes one or more shafts extending between the turbine section and the compressor section such that rotation of the turbine section additionally drives the compressor section.
The one or more shafts of the core can also be mechanically coupled to the fan to facilitate rotation of the fan during operation of the gas turbine engine. However, in order to step down the rotational speed of the one or more shafts of the core to a more efficient rotational fan speed, a gearbox can be provided to mechanically couple the one or more shafts of the core to a fan shaft driving the fan.
The gearbox may be mounted to one or more frame members using a plurality of support structures. The support structures typically allow for some movement to accommodate, e.g., vibrations within the fan and/or core. However, extreme events, such as a bird strike or fan blade loss may encourage substantial movement of, e.g., the fan shaft along an axial direction, a radial direction, and/or a circumferential direction of the gas turbine engine. These extreme events may displace the gearbox past an allowable range, which may cause one or more gears within the gearbox to bind up or otherwise fail.
Accordingly, a mounting assembly for a gearbox capable of accommodating a certain amount of displacement along the axial direction, the radial direction, and the circumferential direction of the gas turbine engine while limiting such displacement past an allowable range during extreme events would be useful.